Marketing

When it comes to credit cards, it’s well established in the field of behavioral economics that people who use plastic are unconsciously willing to spend more than those who pay with cash, a phenomenon known as the “credit card premium.” But there are a few other important behaviors you need to know which will help you retain clients easier if you accept credit cards.

When writing copy for a website, lawyers need to learn how to talk less about their degrees and qualifications, and more about the problems that they solve. Marketing experts call it describing benefits, rather than features. Are you doing this on your website?

By 2017, it is estimated that 95% of non-cash transactions will be paid by credit or debit cards. That leaves just a mere 5% paid through traditional paper check payments. Many attorneys are beginning to recognize if they don’t accept credit cards already, they may need to reconsider in order to facilitate collection of fees in the very near future.

Every time a client makes the decision to retain a lawyer, they weigh the fee against the value of your services. If your fee is too high relative to the (perceived) value they will receive, they are not going to retain you. Therefore, if you don’t have a compelling value proposition, you must reduce your fee in order to get the client to retain you. And no lawyer really wants to do that, right? Because then you are competing based upon fees (cost proposition) and that is a losing game. So, what do you do?

Interested in teaching? There is nothing you can do to help the young lawyers coming up behind you that will help them more than teaching them what you know. Scroll to the bottom of the post by Suzanne Meehle to learn how you might very well be able to teach young lawyers what you know.

I don’t know about you but one of the biggest killers of my productivity is constant disruptions. We can blame it on our poor time management skills or our addictive behavior when it comes to obsessively checking emails or the delusion we are gifted multi-taskers. But at the end of the day, productivity suffers and this means your profits suffer.

Have you ever heard the advice, “Never eat lunch alone?” That’s what they teach sales people who need to schmooze clients and referral sources in order to get new business. It’s not bad advice, but it is woefully incomplete.

It is not enough to simply go to lunch with people you like and call it networking. It’s not enough to show up at chamber of commerce meetings, bar association luncheons, and networking happy hours. In the world of networking, the “work” piece is the important part. This is how I get clients.

Amazon transformed the retail industry by networking small businesses together. It eventually replaced the individuality of each small business with it’s own ‘brand’, Amazon. Eventually, small businesses were able to reduce their overhead further by cutting out their physical real estate, cutting employees and simply marketing and selling their goods through Amazon. This on-demand online company is a ‘networked platform’ and meets the customer where they are. Imagine a network for lawyers that has nothing to do with a commercially branded company, but through bar associations, or through certain law schools or an AmLaw 100 firm. Imagine a network for solos in a given state or region. Imagine a network driven by the lawyers. This is an eye-opening guest lecture which will help you to envision practicing the way you want to practice. Listen and learn.

“You never told me that!” Those are words a lawyer never wants to hear, but unfortunately many of us do. That’s why CYA (cover your a$$) can be so important.

Often a lawyer’s interaction with a client occurs during one of the most stressful times of the client’s life. Although it may be a routine matter to the lawyer, it may be the only time the client has ever been in this circumstance. Just when the client needs full brain power to comprehend new and complicated concepts, stress negatively impacts the client’s ability to think and remember. So put yourself in your client’s shoes and see how you can make their experience easier while covering yourself.

Christina Burns is the Director of Client Happiness at Ruby Receptionists. Ruby’s understanding of customer service is so deep, their results so stellar, it is why this company is growing by leaps and bounds and you will only find they receive glowing reviews. Christina understands, and Ruby Receptionists lives and breathes, customer service. They have developed a Service Pyramid which is at the core of their client service. Today, Christina will teach you how to implement your own Service Pyramid to improve your clients’ experience with your law firm. Listen and learn.